Modern side window roller blinds for motor vehicles attempt to conceal the guide elements for guiding the blind whenever possible. This means that conventional guide rails that extend beside the rectangular part of the window need to be replaced with guide or support rods. As their name implies, the support rods support the tension bar arranged on the free edge of the blind when the blind is extended. This means that the support rods have two functions, namely guiding the tension bar such that it remains on the window and generating the required thrust for unwinding the blind from the winding shaft and maintaining the blind in the stretched state.
In this respect, the tension bar fixed to the free upper end of the support rod(s) should uniformly distribute the force exerted by the support rods over the blind such that it is held taut, without creases, in all areas. Any diagonal creases in the blind are perceived to be particularly unattractive. These creases can occur if the angle of the connection between the support rod and the tension bar is offset relative to the angle that the blind assumes due to its shape when it is unwound from the winding shaft.
A conical winding shaft can also raise problems with known arrangements. Until now, these winding shafts were only used in connection with manually actuated roller blinds. Other problems with side window roller blinds having support rods involve eliminating rattling noises and getting the tension bar to run properly into the extraction slot at the lower edge of the window.